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Right. Still 2/3rd of the MLB got better. And that's more indicative of how bad the position was as a whole last year.

Sure a few too many "reallys" but I was really just responding to Gato who said something along the lines of his bat being better than awful. The reallys were more for effect.

He's certainly not the problem. So no one take it that way. But his bat sucks.

My words were that he is competent. OTOH, I do think his bat *is* better than awful, and is fine for what his overall package as a player offers. The standard for awful in this lineup for me is Ian Stewart. Barney's bat, as awful as the numbers may look on paper, does not hurt the Cubs and he's not this super easy guy to replace on the roster.

So guys, any thoughts on the Shark day-night splits or am I making too much of it?

Too much. He had 8 starts where he had an ERA over 5 in 2012. 4 were on day games, 4 were on night games. It just happened that his 2 worst in June happened to be on day games and he game up 17 ER in 8 IP. Overall his bad day games were 27 ER in 16.2. His bad night games were 17 in 20.2 IP. So basically his bad spilt is due to those 2 games (Mets, Twins)

The more interesting stat is that in the month of June when he has playing around with the curveball he gave up 25 ER in 4 starts, the other 24 starts he gave up 49 ER.

There is very little doubt in my mind they couldn't have done better than Gregorius.

Towers saying he reminded him of a young Derek Jeter when he saw him in the AFL, are you ******** me? Lay off the pipe, Kevin. His bat has huge question marks. A career .699 minor league OPS. Fringe average runner at best. Really all you are getting is glove. And yes, a great one at a premium spot, but there is no way that was the best package for a top 10 (ok top 20 if you think he regressed that much--I don't) prospect in the game. Hell Gregorius wasn't really even on any top 100 radars of note.

EDIT: And is he really even that good defensively to make up for an inept bat? I guess we'll see. I'm definitely glass half empty on him and glass filled with backwash on the trade in general.

If you think this is as good trade for Arizona, then you are Kevin Towers. Everyone else disagrees with you. Towers has set the Diamondbacks back years this off-season. They are not a better team now then they were at this time last season.

This is why I don't like GMs trying to "speed up" the building process. They usually make bad decisions.

What's really interesting about these trades to me is how it reminds us that MLB players are not "assets" in the sense of fully fluid, fungible vehicles of value that can be freely converted from one form to the other.

If you have a prospect you view as expendable and you need a starting pitcher or an MLB SS, you can't just trade it in for one of exactly comparable value. You have to find a partner to trade with in a very limited market.

(None of which makes the Royals trade make any more sense, because they also need outfielders)